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Tag: WhatsApp

  • Something big, new comes to WhatsApp for Android in Pinned Chats Feature

    Something big, new comes to WhatsApp for Android in Pinned Chats Feature

    WhatsApp has finally introduced the new pin chats feature for all Android users, which was earlier this month only available to Android beta users of the messaging app.

    ImageFile: Something big, new comes to WhatsApp for Android in Pinned Chats Feature

    The pin chat feature in WhatsApp allows users to pin favourite chats on top of the Chats tab. With the new feature, WhatsApp users can pin up to three contacts on top of rest of the conversations.

    “With pinned chats, you never have to worry about scrolling through the long list of conversations to text your family members or your best friend.

    “Users can now pin up to three of the most important group or individual chats to the top of their chat list for easy access — simply tap and hold a chat, and then tap the pin icon at the top of your screen,” said WhatsApp in a statement announcing the Pin feature for Android.

    Unfortunately, the pin chats feature currently support only three chats after which it shows a notification that ‘You can only pin up to 3 chats’ if you try to pin another chat.

    Apart from Pin option, WhatsApp users can also see other options such as Delete, Mute, and Archive as well, which appears on long-pressing a chat.

    One of the biggest highlights of the new Pin feature is that once you pin a chat, it will remain on the top of your chat list, irrespective of your dialogue or conversation timings with the individual or group concerned. Users will be able to see any new chats or conversations following the pinned chats. You can also un-pin WhatsApp chats whenever you please, by long pressing the option, and disabling the Pin button.

  • EU fines Facebook 110m euros over misleading WhatsApp data

    EU fines Facebook 110m euros over misleading WhatsApp data

    European Union antitrust regulators on Thursday said they would fine Facebook 110 million euros (122.4 million dollars) for providing misleading information over its purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.

    Calling it a “proportionate and deterrent fine,” the European Commission, which acts as the EU’s competition watchdog, said Facebook had said it could not automatically match user accounts on its namesake platform and WhatsApp but two years later launched a service that did exactly that.

    “The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook’s statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users’ identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility,” the Commission said.

    The commission added that the fine would not reverse the Commission’s decision to clear the purchase of WhatsApp and was unrelated to separate investigations into data protection issues.

    Reuters reported on Wednesday that Facebook was set to be fined.

     

     

    Reuters

     

  • Regulating Facebook, Whatsapp will negatively affect ICT growth – Danbatta

    Regulating Facebook, Whatsapp will negatively affect ICT growth – Danbatta

    Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, on Tuesday allayed fears in some quarters that the Commission is out to regulate over the Top (OTT) services.

    Danbatta who made the statement at an ongoing interaction with media executives in Lagos stressed that Over the Top Services (OTT), such as facebook, Whatsapp among others breed innovation.

    The NCC boss added Regulating them [OTT – Facebook, Whatsapp etc] will negatively impact ICT growth.

    Also read…In photos: NCC boss, Danbatta meets media executives in Lagos

    He however mentioned that the resolution of the National Economic Council (NEC) on multiple taxation & multiple regulations in telecoms need to be implemented.

    Full details soon…

  • WhatsApp reports India Top Market for Video Calling Minutes; over 55 million Video Calls made per day globally

    WhatsApp reports India Top Market for Video Calling Minutes; over 55 million Video Calls made per day globally

    After intensive testing, WhatsApp started rolling out the video calling feature in November last year across all platforms globally. Now, after six months of the feature being live, WhatsApp confirms that India is the top country in the world to use the video calling feature.

    In India, a total of over 50 million video calling minutes per day are recorded by WhatsApp, the highest among all the other countries where WhatsApp is used.

    These statistics strengthen the notion as to why WhatsApp holds India as a priority country for its future business propositions.

    Out of the 1.2 billion monthly active users globally; WhatsApp enjoys 200 million monthly active users from India alone.

    Its video calling feature has been quite a success globally, attracting over 340 million video calling minutes per day.

    ImageFile: WhatsApp reports India Top Market for Video Calling Minutes; over 55 million Video Calls made per day globally

    WhatsApp also claims that users make over 55 million video calls per day through WhatsApp.

    Out of the 340 million video calling minutes per day, 50 million video calling minutes are from India alone, signifying the amount of traction this country brings for WhatsApp.

    While WhatsApp was really late in introducing its video calling feature compared to its competitors, its large subscriber base helped gaining huge traction in such a short time.

    During the video calling feature launch, WhatsApp also said that the new video calling service was optimized to work in India, where users often struggle with poor Internet connectivity.

    WhatsApp recently also introduced a separate video calling button for Android users, making it more accessible on the chat screen. iPhone users already had a separate button from the beginning.

    Recently, WhatsApp also revamped its Status feature to bring a Snapchat-like disappearing video and photo format to the platform.

    While the Status got a separate tab where users could share media content with their contacts for 24 hours, the original Status message that showed up with your profile info was also brought back after popular demand.

  • Facebook tops 1.9 billion monthly users

    Facebook tops 1.9 billion monthly users

    On Wednesday, Facebook reported hitting 1.94 billion monthly users as of the end of the March quarter; up from 1.86 billion in the previous quarter and 1.65 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

    Facebook now has 1.28 billion people who use its services every single day, up from 18% year-over-year.

    According to CNNtech, Facebook’s unparalleled audience gives it an “insurmountable competitive advantage,” quoting Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush.

    It said, although some cracks are beginning to show up.

    Facebook posted $8 billion in revenue for the quarter, beating Wall Street estimates. However, its sales growth is beginning to slow down.

    Facebook’s total sales for the quarter were up 49% from the same period a year earlier, breaking its streak of five consecutive quarters of growing sales at 50% or more.

    David Wehner, Facebook’s CFO, said in November the company expected to see its ad sales growth rate “come down meaningfully” in 2017. The reason: Facebook is hitting the ceiling for how many ads it can shove in front of users.

    Wehner reiterated that point on a conference call with analysts Wednesday.

    Facebook stock fell 3% in afterhours trading.

    According to CNN, analysts are now looking to other Facebook services like Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp to pick up the slack as Facebook’s main business matures. Facebook does not break out sales for the other services.

    WhatsApp and Messenger each have more than one billion users and Instagram now has more than 700 million users.

    WhatsApp Status (a feature that copied Snapchat) reached 175 million daily active users, while Instagram Stories recently became more popular than Snapchat.

    In recent months, Facebook has also faced criticism for its handling of ad metrics, fake news and troubling videos of murder and suicide shared on the platform.

    Earlier on Wednesday, Facebook announced plans to add 3,000 reviewers to help monitor and combat violent videos.

    On the earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said AI tools will get better over time, but it will take a “period of years” to reach the quality level that Facebook wants.

    “It’s not just about getting content off of Facebook,” Zuckerberg said. He pointed to a recent case where Facebook worked with law enforcement to help save someone’s life who was live streaming their suicide on Facebook Live.

    Executives also addressed a report about gender bias at Facebook, which alleged that code written by women was rejected more often than code written by men.

    “This is an issue I take very seriously,” COO Sheryl Sandberg said on the call, adding that the study was conducted by a former employee with “incomplete data”.

    Facebook conducted its own research using full data and found that the rates at which code was sent back coordinated with level not gender. Sandberg said there are more male engineers at the senior level and in the industry in general.

  • Checkout how people reacted after WhatsApp went offline globally

    Checkout how people reacted after WhatsApp went offline globally

    Last night, May 4, 2017, popular messaging app, WhatsApp had technical issues and was offline for over 2-hours in some parts of the world.

    It was unprecedented, no one saw it coming and the world panicked. The service has since been restored and WhatsApp is yet to make an official statement as to what led to the sudden crash of the app.

    Read some of the reactions below…

     

     

  • Indian state places ban on all social media platforms

    Jammu and Kashmir, a state in India has on Wednesday banned all social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for one month in the Valley in order to prevent “anti-national and anti-social elements” from spreading “inflammatory messages”.

    This is coming after Mobile Internet services have remained suspended in the Valley since April 19 following widespread students’ unrest.

    According to a report by NDTV, the Home Department order, written by R. K. Goyal, Principal Secretary to Government, in this regard read: “On careful examination of all relevant factors, it is observed that the use of social media platforms, which are being misused by anti-national and anti-social elements by transmitting inflammatory messages in various forms, are immediately required to be regulated/curbed”.

    The order places a blanket ban on social networking platforms including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, QQ, WeChat, Qzone, Tumblr, Google+, Baidu, Skype, Viber, Line, Snapchat, Pinterest, Telegram, Reddit, Snapfish, YouTube (upload), Vine, Xanga, Buzznet, and Flickr.

    The order cites Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 read with the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, to note the Central Government or State Government has the power to take possession of licensed telegraphs and order stoppage of transmission or interception or detention of messages.

    The order directed all Internet service providers (ISPs) that any message or picture through the above-mentioned social networking platforms should be immediately banned.

    The ban remains effective till further orders or for a period of one month, whichever is earlier.

    The authorities had also blocked over 300 WhatsApp groups that, the government said, had been spreading rumours to stoke passions among the youth during the volatile situation in Kashmir.

    The Home Department issued the order to this effect in exercise of powers conferred under the Indian Telegraph Act, an official said in Jammu.

  • WhatsApp, Gmail into tougher EU Privacy Proposal

    ImageFile: WhatsApp, Gmail into tougher EU Privacy ProposalOnline messaging and email services such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail will face tough new rules on how they can track users under a proposal presented by the European Union executive on Tuesday.

    The web players will have to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers’ conversations and ask for their consent before tracking them online to serve them personalized ads.

    The proposal by the European Commission extends some rules that now only apply to telecom operators to web companies offering calls and messages using the Internet, known as “Over-The-Top” (OTT) services, seeking to close a perceived regulatory gap between the telecoms industry and mainly US Internet giants such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

    Tuesday’s proposal would allow telecom companies to use customer metadata – such as the duration and location of calls – to provide additional services and make more money, something they are barred from doing under the current rules.

    The review of the so-called e-privacy law will also force web browsers to have their default setting as not allowing personalized online advertising based on browsing habits. Instead, users will be asked to opt in to allow websites to place cookies on their browsers.

    “It’s up to our people to say yes or no,” said Andrus Ansip, Commission vice-president for the digital single market.

    Cookies are placed on web surfers’ computers and contain bits of information about the user, such as what other sites they have visited or where they are logging in from. They are widely used by companies to deliver targeted ads to users.
    Online adverstisers have warned that overly strict rules would undermine many websites’ ability to fund themselves and keep offering free services. They say the data they use can not identify the user and is therefore low risk, making asking for consent every time too onerous.

    The proposal scraps the obligation on websites to ask visitors for permission to place cookies on their browsers via a banner every time they land on it if the user has already consented through the privacy settings of the web browser.

    The “cookie banner” has been lambasted as ineffective because people tend to accept them without necessarily reading what that entails.

    Companies falling foul of the new law will face fines of up to 4 percent of their global turnover, in line with a separate data protection law set to enter into force in 2018.

    The proposal will need to be approved by the European Parliament and member states before becoming law.

  • Users send 63 billion messages globally on WhatsApp New Year’s Eve

    ImageFile: Users send 63 billion messages globally on WhatsApp New Year’s EveWhatsApp has revealed that users of the instant messaging platform sent a massive total of 63 billion messages on New Year’s Eve.

    As we reported last week, a very significant part of that massive number was generated by India – which saw 14 billion messages being sent on the day. Both numbers set new single-day records for the messaging app.

    Of the 63 billion messages sent, there were 7.9 billion images, and 2.4 billion videos, the Facebook-owned messaging firm revealed, in a statement to Venture Beat.

    As we mentioned, New Year’s Eve saw 14 billion WhatsApp messages sent in India. Of those, 32 percent were media messages – photos, GIF images, videos, and voice messages. A total of 3.1 billion images, 700 million GIF images, and 610 million videos were sent on WhatsApp in India on the day.

    Notably, WhatsApp only recently rolled out the ability to share animated GIF images on the platform. WhatsApp for iPhone got the feature back in November, while WhatsApp for Android got the feature in December. Android recently also got the ability to stream shared videos, letting users view videos before they were downloaded.

    WhatsApp stopped working on older versions of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone on December 31. Devices running on Android 2.2 or lower, iOS 6 or lower, and Windows Phone 7 are no longer supported by the app.

  • WhatsApp delivers record 14 billion messages for Indians New Year’s Eve

    WhatsApp has announced 14 billion messages were exchanged on the messaging app in India on New Year’s Eve.

    WhatsApp said 32 percent of the messages were in some form of media ranging from photos, GIF images, and videos to voice messages, the Facebook-owned instant messaging platform said on Friday.

    The number of messages shared on the platform on New Year’s Eve is even higher than the last record set during Diwali when 8 billion messages were sent in one day, WhatsApp said.

    A total of 3.1 billion images, 700 million GIF images, and 610 million videos were sent on WhatsApp on the occasion in the country alone. WhatsApp has more than 160 million monthly active users in India.

    In Nigeria, millions of users took to the instant messaging app to send messages in the form of texts, photos, GIFs, voice notes and videos to friends and families over the yuletide.

    Interestingly, WhatsApp only recently rolled out the ability to share animated GIF images on the platform. WhatsApp for iPhone got the feature back in November, while WhatsApp for Android got the feature in December. Android recently also got the ability to stream shared videos, letting users view videos before they were downloaded.

    Last month, a major new feature was reportedly spotted in the WhatsApp for iPhone beta – the ability to revoke and edit sent messages. Several other messaging apps offer similar features, and their addition to WhatsApp will certainly be well-received. Also spotted was the ability to preview shared archive files.

    Notably, WhatsApp stopped working on older versions of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone on December 31. Devices running on Android 2.2 or lower, iOS 6 or lower, and Windows Phone 7 are no longer supported by the app.

    WhatsApp also announced it is dropping support for BlackBerry OS in December 2016 but extended the shutdown date for the BlackBerry OS devices till June this year.